anything easy has its cost
by princess-j3ss
Summary: The second installment to the Falling For the First Time series. It's the Promised Day, and tensions are running high at Central. The million dollar question - Where was Sheska! (Cover art done by the amazing and talented areyousanta on Tumblr).
1. primus

**A/N:** So, after posting the first installment to the ShesKain shenanigans, I got feedback wondering if there would be more, and had to continue the story. Everyone has been asking about the reunion after the Promised Day, but the next logical step in my thinking was WHAT THE HECK was Sheska doing during the Promised Day. We will get to the reunion, I promise.

I can't believe that I got so much feedback for 'anyone plain can be lovely', this little self-indulgent fic that I honestly thought no one would read. Thank you so much for all the Kudos, comments, and anon messages I've gotten about this! I honestly thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. I hope you enjoy this installment!

* * *

Sheska had come very close to calling in sick on the Promised Day, for the sole purpose of watching the upcoming solar eclipse.

She hadn't, of course, known that there was any reason other than the eclipse that her day would be special.

It had taken her longer than she would admit to convince herself that it would be irresponsible to do such a thing. Besides, she could always sneak away and watch it from the roof, or in one of the abandoned offices. No one would miss her; it was the best compromise that she could think of.

The bespectacled brunette felt as though she had done some maturing in the months since Kain Fuery had been transferred from Central command, and she'd lost the only friend she had known up until that point.

Her mother was still ill and in the hospital, though the nurses finally gave in to Sheska's relentless visits, and, so long as she disinfected properly, she was able to visit and help with the rehabilitating. The time was cherished, and every time she said goodbye to her mother, she feared it was for the last time.

She had thrown herself into getting her hands on any information about her mother's condition, so she could possibly give suggestions to the doctors about what they could try for her treatments.

But Sheska had also stopped spending as much time in the library as she had before.

When her coworkers invited her out, she went. She had realized the value of friendship, and though she hadn't found another relationship that was as comfortable or as close as the one she shared with Kain, she was hungry for more.

She started visiting Mrs. Hughes and her beautiful daughter Elicia, something that she really should have done a lot sooner than she did. Though, sweet as she was, Mrs. Hughes was elated to see her when she explained who she was, and what had brought her there.

She had even started taking advantage of the gym facilities that she had access to at Central, and was able to lift more than a few books without her arms getting sore.

As for Kain, Sheska had sent him long and detailed letters every week. She never got any responses, but she figured he was either too busy to have time to write but hopefully enjoyed reading them, or they weren't being delivered. She seriously hoped it was the former.

Sheska refused to believe anything worse had happened.

"Morning, Sara!" Sheska chirped as she walked into their shared office, having more of a fond appreciation for her gossipy coworker now that she'd actually taken the time to get to know her.

Sara smiled over her cup of coffee, "I'm surprised you came in today, we were taking bets on you calling off so you could watch the eclipse."

Sheska laughed, cheeks reddening. "I – well, I thought about it, honestly. I was hoping you could cover me for a little bit so I can go take some notes."

Sara rolled her eyes and waved her hand in the air, "Fine. But you owe me."

"Okay, I'm just going to go scope out an abandoned office, I'll be right back."

The halls were more deserted than she had ever seen them, and so, Sheska found herself an abandoned office in the giant fortress, with a wall of windows that faced out into the city. Her plan was to set up a little station so that she could sneak away as quickly as possible when the time for the eclipse came, but she didn't quite get that far.

What she certainly didn't expect to come from her morning was to hear sirens and gunshots.

Paralyzed by fear, but also propelled by curiosity, she ducked down but continued to look out the window. There wasn't much to see, and she turned back to the center of the room, back to the wall as she weighed her options.

What exactly was going on? What was she expected to do in such a situation where she had no information? She probably should have made her way back to her office, but the Central Command was a large building, and she wasn't sure what she would run into along the way.

Sheska was unsure for how long she sat there, trying to make up her mind, but the gunshots sounded as if they were getting closer and closer, and then –

 _BOOM._

She squinted, leaping up to look out the windows again.

 _Was that a tank?!_

She needed to make some sort of move, and chances were that whatever was going on, it was happening outside the fortress walls.

Which really didn't make her feel better about the civilians who were going to get caught in the crossfire, but at least she could try to get back to her office and figure out what was going on.

Steeling herself, the brunette pushed her glasses up her nose and pushed herself off the floor, across the room, and out the door.

The hall was deserted, which wasn't particularly surprising, but as she turned around the corner, she ran right smack into something solid that had her stumbling backwards.

Blinking the stars out of her eyes, Sheska was incredibly surprised to see Sara, who clutched at her uniform jacket.

"Sheska! Everyone is looking for you! There's been a coup, we're under attack!"

Even though she had pretty much pieced that all together, hearing the words aloud startled her almost as much as the blast of the canons. Her jaw dropped, "What!"

"We don't have all the information, but I think it's the Briggs soldiers. We need to get somewhere safe, _now_."

"Shouldn't we – shouldn't we try to help?!"

Well, as much help as she could provide having no formal combat training, no medical training, and no skills other than transcribing, alphabetizing, and colour coding. It wasn't exactly like she could paper cut someone to death.

"Yeah, sure, let's go get right into the heart of the action! You've shot a gun before, right?" Sara rolled her eyes in the way only she could, and ploughed on without giving her time to answer, "Don't waste time. We're going to set up a station for the wounded in the operations center. We can help the military doctors."

"I – yeah, okay! I'm coming; I know just the thing that can help."

"Okay, hurry!"

The two girls nodded at each other, and each took off running in different directions down the hall.

Sheska had a tendency to panic in stressful situations. The only thing that could ever calm her down in such situations were her books. The irrational and panicking part of her brain was telling her that the least they could do is have a few medical books handy.

Bursting into her intended archive room, Sheska pulled three different books she thought might be helpful off the shelves, and took a deep breath to steady herself as she got ready to start making her way to the operations center.

Which, of course, happened to be all the way on the other side of Central, and she was completely unsure what kind of trouble she would run into on her way there.

As she stepped out into the hall, the Central intercom switched on, and Sheska screamed, tossing her books in the air.

Falling to her knees, she clutched at her heart, berating herself for being so jumpy as she gathered her books.

"Attention Central soldiers, attention Central Soldiers. Briggs forces have taken the operations center. Central soldiers, cease all hostility immediately. I repeat, we have your general in custody."

"Holy cow", Sheska breathed, straightening her glasses as she stood up.

She had heard that Briggs soldiers were absolutely fierce and fearless, but that didn't give reasonable explanation for taking over Central command.

Her curiosity was piqued, but she decided that they would figure things out eventually. She needed to focus on getting somewhere safe.

It was taking all of her strength not to flat out sprint as she slipped through the hallways; hoping that she didn't run into anyone. She kept hearing booms, bangs and crashes that made her jump, but none of them seemed close enough to put her in any immediate danger.

It was really eerie seeing the corridors so deserted, and she kept anticipating to run into someone as she turned around every corner, but she assumed everyone was at the front gate, trying to hold up against the attack. The operations center was close to the front gate of the fort, so she supposed she would start running into company sooner rather than later.

Luckily, she had looked at maps of the building, and knew her way around.

 _She had to be close_ …

Sheska looked out the window and realized she was only two hallways away from the operations center.

All of a sudden, a noise caught her attention, and she whipped around, glancing nervously around the deserted hall. It started almost like a low humming; a buzzing that sounded like it was getting louder and louder as whatever was emitting it got closer.

Heart hammering against her ribcage, Sheska felt her blood run cold as she realized the buzzing was an inhuman growling. It was getting closer and closer at a high velocity, and she froze, panic completely overtaking her system.

She had no idea what they were up against.

Backing up against the wall, eyes wide with horror, Sheska hugged the books to her chest, bracing herself for the inevitable.

And then, it came into view.

At first she thought it was a very pale man, but after a split second, she realized it was a monster. A monster with pasty white skin that stretched out hideously across its body and one eye in the center of its forehead that rolled around in the most grotesque way.

Sheska's scream got lost in her throat, and she was paralyzed against the wall as the creature caught sight of her.

 _Its mouth was covered in blood._

She was positively trembling now, and held up her books as some sort of feeble defense mechanism.

This was how she was going to die.

She hadn't even gotten to tell her mother goodbye …

And Kain, she hoped he was safe, wherever he was.

The creature ran at her, and she squeezed her eyes shut, turning away, hoping that whatever happened, it would at least be quick.

The sound of metal hitting flesh reverberated throughout the hall, and when Sheska opened her eyes, she was no longer face to face with the pale monster, but with the largest man she had ever seen in her entire life. And that was including Major General Armstrong.

Her jaw dropped. She could tell by his uniform that he was a Captain from Briggs, and vaguely wondered in the back of her mind if he would bother killing her after he'd just saved her.

 _He'd just saved her!_

Even more spectacular than his size was the automail that replaced his right arm, and she gasped in wonder, realizing a moment too late that she was staring and that was incredibly rude.

Sheska let out a shaky breath and pushed herself away from the wall, legs trembling and barely able to hold her own weight. She wanted to ask him what that thing was, to thank him, but no coherent sentences were able to form.

Instead, he growled at her, "I thought I told you to get to the operations center!"

"I – Right! Right, sorry." He must have mistaken her for someone else, but at least she wasn't someone he wanted to harm.

"Go!"

Sheska propelled herself down the hallway, then froze, turning back around to grab his flesh hand give it a quick shake in both of hers, noting how it was bigger than her entire head. "Thank you, Captain! Be safe."

Pure adrenaline was propelling her forwards now, down the first hallway.

She was halfway down the second when something caught her foot and she went down, screaming the whole way, smacking her chin against the floor.

When she scrambled up, she realized she had tripped over a man.

A dead man.

 _A dead man with his throat ripped out._

Sheska leaned over and spilled the contents of her stomach on the floor.


	2. secondus

**A/N:** This was really cathartic to write when I wrote it, and then strangely cathartic to edit. I found it was a little difficult to tweak canon so that it fit with my narrative, but still keep it mostly compliant and exciting, but I hope you enjoy it! Thanks so much for reading, you all make my heart sing! There will be one final chapter in this installment, and I can promise the return of a character we're all waiting for.

There is also a minor character death in this chapter, so please take care of yourselves!

* * *

On her hands and knees in the middle of a deserted hallway in a command center that was under attack, and it was all Sheska could do to not pass out. The only thing keeping her conscious was the thought that surely the one monster she had seen couldn't have been working alone, and the last thing she needed to be was passed out by herself in the middle of the hallway.

Fortunately, she didn't have to go far before she ran into the makeshift clinic. It wasn't in the operations center, but one of the offices next door that was bigger and had more room.

It looked like Briggs and Central soldiers alike were helping out with wounded men, most of the wounded looked as though they'd had run ins with the mannequin monsters.

"Sheska!" One of the other women she worked with, Ida caught her attention and waved at her from across the room. "Thank goodness you're safe! Have you come to help?"

"Yeah!" Sheska tried to avoid looking too long at any of the soldiers who seemed to be multiplying – she didn't do well with blood – and scuttled over to Ida. "Where's Sara?"

Ida wrinkled her nose and looked around, "She was here, ordering all the soldiers around. You know how much she likes to be in charge, I'm sure she'll show up."

"Yeah…"

Was no one going to talk about the creepy moving mannequins?! Because that was not something that happened in real life!

"I brought some – uh, some books", the brunette placed the medical books down on the ground beside her friend, though they seemed rather silly now. "I figured they might help."

"Here, starting cutting this to make-" Ida handed her cloth and a pair of scissors, but something caught Sheska's attention and she waved at Ida to be quiet, moving towards the noise.

Someone had rigged a radio, and it was weakly bleating the news from the main radio station.

The room was loud, and the radio was quiet, but she was still able to pick up the words 'Mustang's men' and 'in the city'.

"Kain!" She breathed, and a million emotions hit her at once. Emotions that felt inappropriate considering she was caught smack in the center of a coup.

Leaning in so that her ear was right to the speaker, she listened for a few moments, gathering that the Colonel and his men were working against corrupt officials in the military.

The corrupt officials had tried to kill the Fuhrer's wife!

Renewed with a new sense of hope, Sheska turned around to stride back over to Ida so she could start helping.

The room got louder as more and more wounded were brought to them, with only a few doctors to try to tend to them all. Sheska sat beside Ida, and they were eventually joined by Sara and another one of their coworkers, Lula, as they all worked to help create extra supplies out of whatever they could find.

The girls chattered, speculating about what they thought might happen next – by the time the mannequins were brought up, Sheska's thoughts were already elsewhere. She let her mind wander to the friend she hadn't let herself think about too deeply for months.

Hopefully, if he really was back in the city, he was safe.

She was so caught up in her thoughts she hadn't realized Sara was nudging her shoulder, and when she looked over, her friend was pale faced, and pointed towards a soldier who was lying on the ground, gasping for breath.

"He keeps pointing to you. I think you should go over there."

" _Me_?" Sheska squeaked.

"Go on!" Someone gave her a push, and she stumbled to her feet, crossing the room to drop down beside the fallen soldier.

He was clutching his abdomen, and from the red seeping out onto his white uniform, she got the distinct impression that he had been shot through the stomach.

What an agonizing way to die.

"Kellie?"

Sheska licked her lips, shaking her head. "I'm not – I'm sorry, I'm not Kellie."

The soldier looked at her with glassy eyes that were almost unseeing, and she realized with a sobering nausea that he couldn't have been any older than she was.

"Kellie, do you think I made Momma proud?"

Sheska scratched her forehead.

"Yeah, I do."

"Tell her – tell her that I love her."

It seemed cruel to lie, but even crueler to refuse his request, so Sheska, feeling tearful, nodded. "I will."

Taking one of his hands in hers, she sighed and rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand. Not that she expected to provide him with much comfort, but he obviously thought she was a family member in his delirium, and she wasn't going to burst his bubble.

"Do you think it'll hurt to die?" He asked, after several very long moments.

Honestly, she wasn't sure what to think. Books could only tell her so much about a topic that was so far out of human understanding. And in Sheska's opinion - needed to stay out of the reach of human knowledge.

"I think – I think that it'll be like falling into a really deep and peaceful sleep", Sheska said quietly after a moment.

"That's nice."

And Sheska watched as a giant tear rolled down out of his right eye, and then he took his last shuddering breath.

His eyes were wide open at the ceiling, glassy and unseeing.

She hadn't even asked for his name.

Feeling absolutely devastated, Sheska gently closed the fallen soldier's eyes with her fingertips, though continued to sit with him, clutching his hand.

The room around them seemed to have descended into absolute chaos, but she didn't want to leave this man.

This man, this fallen soldier who had so much life to live, who was too young, who did not deserve such a fate. A man who was unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire of commanders who didn't care whether he lived or died. A man who had become a pawn, and suffered for it.

Even with the chaos and noise of the room, when the soldier ran in to tell them that Fuhrer King Bradley was alive, and back to take over command, half the room started cheering, and half fell into silence.

With one final squeeze of the soldier's hand, Sheska made her way unsteadily over to where her friends were gathered, whispering in hushed tones.

The momentary peace between the Central and Briggs soldiers in the room seemed to have broken, and the tension in the room felt palpable. She could have sworn the temperature had dropped.

"What should we do?" Lula asked Sara, who for once in all the time Sheska had known her looked like she didn't have the answers.

Before she had time to answer, however, they were interrupted by one of the doctors.

"I think you ladies should get to the operations center. It'll be safer there than here."

"Are you sure? Surely there must be more we can do to help here." Lula offered.

"I have a feeling things are about to turn real ugly. I don't want you ladies caught in the crossfire."

Sheska bit her lip and nodded, he wasn't the first to tell her that. She was a little wary of running into the monsters that had been unleashed throughout the Fortress, but the operations center was close.

Grabbing Ida's hand, the brunette stood up and pulled her friend with her.

With a glance at the fallen soldier, "I think we've done all we can for now. The fighting will be over soon and we can help more then."

"You heard the man, let's go!" Sara grabbed Lula's hand and led the way out of the room.

Ida started trembling, and Sheska knew that she had seen the mannequin monsters.

It was getting more and more difficult to ignore all the sounds - it sounded as if the building was about to collapse in on itself, but she tried to fake a mask of calm that she didn't feel internally.

"It's okay", she encouraged, feeling much older than her years as the group of women slid out into the hall, over to the operations center, running into the room quickly because they were still unsure what was lurking out in the halls.

Sheska wasn't surprised to find that it was full of men, but she wasn't sure how to address them.

Dropping Ida's hand, she cleared her throat and stepped forwards as a dozen pairs of eyes turned to her.

"I – we were told to – reconvene here and I-"

Sara stepped in front of Sheska and said confidently, "Captain Buccaneer sent us. He said we'd be safe here."

One of the Briggs soldiers nodded. "It's alright Miss, we won't harm you."

Sheska gasped as she looked around the room, and saw three of her commanding offices tied to chairs, completely immobilized.

Brigadier General Clemin met her eyes and wiggled in his chair.

"Private! I command that you untie us."

Sheska felt her eyes grow wide and she gave a panicked look around the room, backing away from General Clemin, shaking her head.

"I – no, I – no."

What did he expect? For her to go against the wishes of the men with guns? As if they would just let her stroll up and untie him?

Her own words from months prior echoed in her ears.

 _Maybe we all need to stop blindly following our superiors._

They had threatened the Fuhrer's _wife_ , who knew what else they had done behind the scenes!

Wrapping her arms around herself, she ignored the rest of the men and moved to the other side of the room, sinking down against the wall.

It felt like someone had backed over her with a train. All the emotion she had kept bottled up over the past few hours hit her and knocked the wind out of her; she was struggling to breath and needed a moment to just – be.

Sheska vaguely noted that Ida came to sit down beside her, and that Lula went over to one of the Briggs soldiers.

"You're hurt!"

"I'm fine, Miss."

Lula proceeded to fuss over the soldier anyways, and he tried to wave her away but looked rather pleased all the same.

And then, they waited.

Transmissions were made, the soldier in charge of the communications received communication from Major General Armstrong, and they waited some more.

The noises from outside worsened, and she was worried that the building might crumble in on itself and trap them all.

Sheska got up, she paced.

She noted how dark it was getting outside, and would have thought it was nighttime if she didn't distinctly remember the eclipse.

She sat back down, she hugged Lula and Ida.

It was nerve wracking not fully knowing what was happening, and her imagination was going into overdrive.

"Sheska!" Sara finally snapped, "Stop pacing, you're driving me crazy."

"Sorry."

She went to the window, staring out it and nearly jumping as one of the Briggs soldiers spoke closer to her than she realized anyone was.

"Looks like night out there."

Sheska nodded, feeling an unexplainable sense of foreboding low in her gut. "That's the eclipse."

"Hurry." They all snapped their attention to General Clemin, who was hunched over, sweat pouring down his face.

"Please hurry, we've got to get to the center of the circle. PLEASE. WE'LL DIE HERE."

Sheska took a step forwards towards him, never had she seen someone beg so desperately, and her heart started thumping against her ribcage.

"Maybe we should … listen to him."

Everyone ignored her.

"Quit acting up!"

"I'm begging you to take me to the center. Please do it, we'll be swallowed! Hurry!"

The room descended into uncomfortable silence once more.

Despite herself, Sheska pulled the glasses she had made for the eclipse out of her pocket, and watched with wonder out the window as the moon overtook the sun.

There was a faint rim of light around it, but everything else was engulfed in dark.

"Cool", she breathed, momentarily forgetting everything else as she took in the beauty of nature in action.

It was one thing to read about something, but another to witness it.

Before she had even turned away from the window, a black fog-like mist had engulfed the room.

She cried out, her voice lost amidst the other people's voices in the room, and she turned around but it was useless. They were all blind.

"What's happening?!" Sara whimpered.

"I told you", General Clemin bellowed above all the rest.

Sheska had never felt so panicked, and she smacked heads with someone as they all groped around, blind.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry!"

And then, as soon as the mist had appeared, it was gone, and the room was replaced with a faint red, eerie light.

Sheska watched wide eyed as two of the Briggs men slumped over the table, and fell to the floor.

Lula, Ida, and Sara slumped to the floor around her, and then –

It was the strangest sensation.

Almost equivalent to the feeling of walking up a flight of stairs, only to think there was one more than there actually was. The fleeting moment where your foot falls through the air, only intensified, and it didn't stop.

Her soul was leaving her body.

She fell to the floor, uncomfortably knocking against the hardwood as she struggled, in vain, to regain control of her limbs.

Sheska gasped in a deep gulp of air.

Then she could breathe no more.


	3. tertium

**A/N:** I'm so sorry for how late this is getting uploaded, with school wrapping up, things have been a bit crazy. Regardless, I really hope you all enjoy this chapter, and thanks so much for all the support!

This is the end of this installment in the ShesKain saga, but there will be one more fic to complete the little trilogy, so definitely keep an eye out for that.

* * *

Still halfway between consciousness, Sheska frowned. Had she fallen asleep with her glasses on? Since when had her pillow felt like hardwood floor?

It took her a moment to realize that there was quite the commotion coming from outside, people were shouting, she kept hearing booms and artillery fire. How had she not been woken up?

Opening her eyes and blinking rapidly, Sheska sat up, wiping the drool from her cheek. She made a guttural noise in the back of her throat, and looked around at the roomful of people, though thankfully no one was paying her any attention. In fact, it looked like they were still in the middle of battle. Half the soldiers were staring out the window, yelling their support, while three of the soldiers sat yelling directions into their communications devices.

The brunette took a moment to herself as she remained unnoticed, trying to piece together what had just happened. It had almost felt as if – her soul had left and then reentered her body. Yesterday, she would have said it was impossible, but after everything that she had seen today, she wasn't so sure that anything was outside the realm of possibility.

Things had been dark and cramped and confusing and -

"Sheska! You took so long to come to we were starting to get worried!" Lula cried once she realized Sheska was coherent.

Sheska blinked a few more times – she felt more dazed and confused than anything.

Someone was giving a running commentary on what was happening outside, but the words were only making half sense to her. Until, of course, she heard 'Flame Alchemist' and 'Edward Elric', and her curiosity was immediately piqued.

"What's going on?"

"They're all fighting one man who won't die." Sara told her, and Sheska nodded.

Right, that made perfect sense. Immortal men, mannequin soldiers and souls leaving bodies. Just a regular day at Central.

The booms and crashes from outside got louder and louder, Sheska was certain the entire fort was shaking, and the soldiers in the operations center started shouting commands at even more of a rapid pace, getting louder and louder as the excitement prickled and sparkled through the room.

Everything rose to a crescendo, and then, almost as quickly as it had come on, it was over.

"So – where do we go from here?"

No one had an answer for her.

Hours later, as the sun began to set, Sheska sat at the table in the operations center with Sara, Lula, Ida, and a few other women from archives who had come to join them. They had the radio on, and were listening to the events of the day being recounted, and it filled in a lot of blanks and answered a lot of her questions.

The Briggs soldiers, along with General Mustang and his squad had saved the country.

General Clemin and General Edison had been apprehended earlier in the day, dragged out of the small room with very little struggle. Sheska wondered if they were both lucky to be alive, or if their plans had backfired so heavily on them that they had no fight left.

Either way, it was making her question everything. What kind of person would she have been in she continued working in such a place where she was expected to keep her head down, not ask questions, and do as she were told?

Sure, she was only transcribing archives, but what if someone else who was even more corrupt than Clemin and Edison got into power, and she somehow helped to put the innocent people of Amestris in danger again?

Standing up, Sheska inhaled deeply, and turned to Sara with a kind smile.

"Sara. I am hereby formally handing in my resignation."

Sara looked shocked for a moment, but she regained her composure quickly.

"Are you sure, Sheska? It's been a long and exhausting day, maybe you should sleep on it and give me your final decision tomorrow."

For the first time in her life, she had no plan. Maybe Sara was right, maybe she was making an irrational decision she would regret later, but for now…

"I'm sure. It's been so lovely working with all of you, and I hope we stay in touch."

Ida burst into tears, and before Sheska knew it, she was being smothered in a group hug.

"You – guys – can't – _breathe_."

When they were finally cleared, Sheska left Central command with a bounce in her step. Technically she was jobless, but she felt freer than she had in a long time.

There were a handful of people she wanted to visit and check up on, but she found herself back at her apartment. She was exhausted, all she wanted to do was shower and collapse into her bed – she could deal with the rest the next day.

Letting her mind wander, she wondered how Kain was doing, and if he was safe. She would have loved to try to track him down, but she wasn't even fully certain he was actually in the city, and had no idea how she would track him down even if he was.

The day's events were fully starting to hit her, particularly the death of the young soldier, and she really wished she had her best friend back.

She was simultaneously towel dying her hair and chowing down on an apple tart when there was a soft rapping on her door.

Sheska's heart skipped a beat, and she held up her fists.

"Who is it?"

"Sheska?!"

Her heart skipped a beat at the familiar voice, and she almost burst into tears, leaping to the door in one bound and flinging it open.

"Kain!"

The pair stared at each other, each beaming and taking in the sight of a friend they hadn't seen in months. He'd gotten a little bit taller, and was more tanned than she remembered.

He took a few steps closer to her, still beaming, looking at a loss for words.

Finally, she found her voice.

"You're fogging up my glasses."

Kain laughed, and she realized how much she had missed his laugh.

"You're alive!"

"I'm so glad to see that you're safe!"

There were so many things that she wanted to say to him, so many words that she had prepared for when she finally got to see him again, but all of that went out the window. Running with her spontaneity, she leapt at him, throwing her arms around his neck.

Kain stumbled backwards, but caught her, and wrapped his arms around her back as they squeezed each other tightly.

"When you didn't write back I was – I was almost worried that the worst had happened", she said after a few moments, voice muffled as her face was pressed to his chest.

"Were you at Central today?"

Sheska finally pulled away, nodding. "Yeah it was … well, I honestly don't know if you'd believe half the things that happened, even if I were to tell you."

"I don't know about that. Try me."

She grabbed Kain's hand and tugged him inside, closing the door as she launched into her tale, recounting the day's events.

As it poured out, she let herself cry, realizing how much she needed to talk about everything that had happened.

It was the strangest thing, but it felt like absolutely no time had passed since she'd seen him. They may as well have spent the day at the library together.

When she had finished her tale, she took a deep breath and wiped her cheeks.

"What about you, what happened when you were down South?"

Kain took a deep breath, and launched into his tales of the war in the Aerugo. He spoke of front lines, of losing friends, and as he spoke, Sheska could tell he needed to get it out as much as she had. They both cried as he spoke.

"I – I kept all your letters", he ended sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I think they went through heavy screening because they were all unsealed when I got them. And I couldn't really write back because, well, they disbanded Mustang's unit for a reason and I didn't want to incriminate you or put you in any danger because I know you work at Central and-"

Usually Sheska was the one to ramble, not the other way around.

Impulsively, she leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.

He looked a little startled, but when she pulled back, he grabbed her hand.

Sheska's heart melted as he leaned forwards and kissed her forehead, her nose, her cheeks.

And when they leaned in to kiss again, they did so a little too enthusiastically, and bonked heads.

"Ouch!" Sheska squealed, hand flying to her temple.

Kain laughed, "I'm sorry!"

He kissed her temple.

And then he kissed her lips.

Sheska had never been kissed before, and she had always wondered what the big fuss was about. It seemed a little unhygienic, and quite honestly, something that wasn't for her.

But the rush of admiration that flooded through her from a gentle kiss on the lips made her realize why people kissed.

Sheska pulled back and smiled, a little too elated to be embarrassed, and Kain smiled back.

"I actually don't work at Central anymore."

"You – what? You quit?"

"It might not have been the absolute smartest decision I've made, but I think it was the right thing to do." She paused, and then tacked on, "I know you and General Mustang and ... everyone else will make the nation great."

Kain beamed, and pulled her in for another smothering hug.

Sheska was so thankful that he was alive and well.

"Can you – I mean, if you want to – can you stay with me tonight? I don't really think I want to be alone."

Kain's eyes widened, but he nodded. "Sure! Sure, of course."

And the pair talked until they fell asleep on Sheska's couch, unsure of what was to come, but hopeful that the future would be better.


End file.
